Qatar royalty cause three-hour hold up on BA flight by refusing to sit next to male passengers

Last updated at 17:32 27 July 2007

A Qatar sheikh held up a British Airways flight at Milan's Linate airport for nearly three hours after discovering three of his female relatives had been seated next to men they did not know.

When none of the other business class passengers agreed to swap seats, the sheikh, a member of Qatar's ruling family, went to the pilot, who had already started the engine, to complain, an airport official said.

A mediation attempt was made but as the sheikh and his travelling companions - the three women, two men, a cook and a servant - refused to sit down, the pilot ordered them off the plane for safety reasons.

The London-bound flight took off nearly three hours behind schedule on Thursday evening and around 50 of the 115 passengers missed connecting flights.